I only really like the first and second Wild ARMs games. I think the series took a serious downhill turn afer that. I do think that those two games, along with Golden Sun: The Lost Age, come the closest of any RPG to recapturing the quality dungeon design of Lufia 2. It surprises me how few attempts have been made at creating that particular style of RPG, but there really haven't been too many.

speedpop said:

I think alongside Wild Arms, you could throw Golden Sun on there. The puzzles in Golden Sun literally made me look forward to running through a dungeon and that is rare.

I thought he was like an almighty god, but doesn't he want to rule the world or something along with the sinistrals, I recall him saying ''we''. That would make him evil in the eyes of the humans no? In any case, I'd like the story to be around him.

Member

Woah, woah, don't put Lufia at the same level of Lufia 2. The "sequel" obliterates Lufia in any possible way.

About this one, I fear for the "block attack" but I'm ready to be surprised, maybe developers understand that 3D games in DS sucks big way and switch to sprites (yes, my name Acosta and I like dreaming awake).

Member

Definitely no but Wild Arms is pretty close. It does surpass Lufia in some respects though, mostly combat and customization related to it. Golden Sun would be the other series that comes close to Lufia alongside WA like someone mentioned.

Please be a standard RPG, while I love Wild Arms XF, I don't want to take chances with Lufia.

Neverland did all the work on the first games, but Taito owned the rights to them. But then Neverland and Taito had some sort of falling out and stopped working with each other, and Lufia games have suffered for it.

Maybe now that Square Enix owns Taito, and thus owns Lufia, Square Enix is able to work with Neverland. Or maybe enough veterans have left Neverland for Square Enix to scoop them up and form their own "classic Lufia team" without Neverland. Or maybe Square just means that they've given Taito (the original owners) permission to make another sub-par Lufia.

Whatever the case, the first two games in this series were so strong that if this game comes out in English, I'll probably have no choice but to buy it and give it a chance.

Member

Back in June 1994 I went to a new videogame store in my area and took a chance on the original Lufia, seeing a used copy. It essentially was the replacement for DQV for me, since that was never coming here to NA on the SNES at that point.

I'm so glad I bought it. It just clicked with me soooo well just like DQ did. The writing/localization was one of the best at the time. The way the characters interacted was leagues above other RPG's at the time on the SNES and Genesis. The scene at the beginning with Lufia and the main character in the flower field still stands out. The music was very atmospheric and while the game even then was pretty derivative, there is something to be said for something done RIGHT. Lufia was done extremely right. Besides, at that point, what other RPG's were out? Even BoF hadn't hit yet and FFVI was 4 months or so away as well.

Eventually, when Lufia II hit NA in the summer of 1996, I got that as well, and it was pretty much the best RPG sendoff we could hope for over here all things considered at the time. DQV was STILL not coming, and hell, neither was DQVI. Plus Square and Enix's NA branches were all gone at this point anyway. I cannot stress enough how much of an improvement over the original this game was. Even with some of the glitches (Dual Blade scene in that underwater temple or whatnot? Nearly incomprehensible to navigate.) I remember at a friends home, I was at one of the lowest levels of the random dungeon when he accidentally shut off the power bar that the SNES was hooked up to.

...

Never made it that far since.

Great swan song for the SNES in NA, and made me forget about the PS1 at the time.

I have the other 3 portable games, but I've not invested any considerable time in them, so I can't really comment. From the sounds of it, I've not missed much.

The only problem now is... I can't find where I've got my NES and SNES games stored... I hope they were not accidentally given away or thrown out over the years... =(

For this new game... no gimmicks please. Just take what was in the 2 SNES games and build upon there. I'd love for spritework to stay as well, but being on the DS... probably polygons.

Banned

I think people might hate the random dungeons, but you really can't hate on the battle system. It's really amazing they managed that on a handheld and really, GBA doesn't deserve to mentioned. It's not even Neverland, unlike GBC, which was.

Member

Well, I said way back in the beginning that I expected it to be an action RPG since Neverland doesn't do anything else anymore (sad panda face), but if the game has dungeons anywhere near as fun as Lufia 2's then it could still be a fun, albeit lesser, game. Neverland does make pretty good action RPGs.

Being a retelling of Lufia 2 seems kind of weird, though... but I have to say, I really like that design for Selan.

Member

Well, I said way back in the beginning that I expected it to be an action RPG since Neverland doesn't do anything else anymore (sad panda face), but if the game has dungeons anywhere near as fun as Lufia 2's then it could still be a fun, albeit lesser, game. Neverland does make pretty good action RPGs.

Being a retelling of Lufia 2 seems kind of weird, though... but I have to say, I really like that design for Selan.

Member

It's either a prequel or a retelling, and even if it's a prequel, it's still a retelling since Guy and Selan didn't meet until the events of Lufia 2 originally and yet tada, there they are together in the scan.

It can't be a sequel for reasons that should be apparent to anyone that has played the game.

You're right, didn't even think of the ending for a moment although I beat the game so often...
The strange thing is: The soundtrack booklet states she was 20 years old back then, and this title has her 21 years old. So, either an alternate timeline sequel or a prequel/retelling with sloppy continuity.

Member

You're right, didn't even think of the ending for a moment although I beat the game so often...
The strange thing is: The soundtrack booklet states she was 20 years old back then, and this title has her 21 years old. So, either an alternate timeline sequel or a prequel/retelling with sloppy continuity.